Philippines Meets Paris In An Evergreen Park Bakery

How does a girl from the Philippines who studied at the Cordon Bleu Cooking Institute in Paris end up with a bakery in Evergreen Park?

It`s not as long a trek as you may think. For Aileen Galang, 21, who owns and operates the Oven Maid Bakery at 3355 W. 95th St., the path from Manila to the Chicago suburbs was charted by her family.

Aileen said she has always loved to bake, an interest encouraged by her mother, who created beautiful, edible works of art in her home bakery in a suburb of Manila.

The young baker said she and her brother, Greg, who waits on customers and does the bookkeeping for Oven Maid, ended up in Evergreen Park by way of their aunt and uncle, doctors who live in Oak Lawn.

In the bakery are several certificates from the Cordon Bleu Cooking School. When she and Greg opened Oven Maid Bakery two years ago, they continued the French theme in labeling their baked goods and pastries.

``Customers loved what they saw,`` she said. ``But if they could not pronounce the names, they did not buy the cake. So we changed to American names.``

She noted that a favorite of customers is the easy-to-pronounce Tobbler Mousse Swiss Chocolate Cake, which serves 12 to 15 people and costs $30.

Also in the bakery`s showcase are her pistachio marzipan cake with raspberry preserves and strawberry filling, $25. Individual French pastries begin at $1. Ensaimada, Filipino versions of sweet rolls, are $1.25 each.

In the corner of the bakery is an elaborate wedding cake, priced at $800. She and her brother reside in the apartment above the bakery, and await a visit from their mother. Aileen isn`t planning a trip home anytime soon since she cannot leave the shop for more than a week. As Manila is a 19 hours plane ride, visits to her native country will have to wait.